Clay Holmes has big aspirations for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic.
In an interview with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman on The Post’s “The Show” podcast on Tuesday, Holmes said the U.S. squad is there for one thing only — to win.
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It has the stars, luring players like Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper to play for the first time in their careers. It has the up-and-coming youngsters, like Roman Anthony and Nolan McLean.
Aaron Judge has two homers in the U.S.’ three World Baseball Classic wins thus far. AP
With what Holmes called a “dream team,” the expectations are sky high.
“We’re in this thing to win it. It’s very obvious, that’s what we want, that’s what we’re here for,” Holmes said. “The more you play, the more you see it matters to the fans, the more you see how much it matters…we all feel that we all want it.”
Holmes, now a starting pitcher for the Mets and a former reliever for the Yankees, has also felt the allure of playing with some of the game’s biggest stars, like the aforementioned Judge.
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“It is definitely a dream. It’s the best players in the world,” Holmes said. “You’re on the same team, you’re on the same busses, you’re chatting it up in the locker rooms, and you’re playing for something that matters.
“I think this has come together tremendously,” he added. “It’s the place you want to be. It’s the baseball you want to play. And it’s lived up to the hype for sure.”
Holmes also mentioned that Judge, his former teammate in the Bronx and the U.S. captain, cares so much about winning that it “bleeds out to the rest of the clubhouse.”
Clay Holmes tossed three scoreless innings in the U.S.’ win over Great Britain. Troy Taormina-Imagn Images
“To have him as a captain, to just have that presence of what he stands for, how he pushes team and players is the start of this,” Holmes said of Judge. “He’s a leader, and it happens naturally for him.”
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Through three games of pool play, the U.S. is 3-0. The Americans demolished Brazil, 15-5, and Great Britain, 9-1, before holding off Mexico, 5-3, Monday night.
The U.S.’s final pool play game is Tuesday at 9 p.m. against Italy, where a win would clinch Pool B’s top spot in the quarterfinals. It would play the runner-up of Pool A in that case.
From there, the U.S. would need to win three more games to capture its second WBC title — and fulfill Holmes’ “championship or bust” philosophy.
